Why and How?

Why are you reading this?

Perhaps a more important question, how are you reading this?

The process of you reading this information is remarkably complex, and also just plain remarkable.

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You clicked a zen | tech | thought link from somewhere, possibly twitter, email, facebook, google+ – somewhere on the Internet. Once your finger lifted from your ‘input device’ (also called a mouse), and the mechanical spring inside the device had completed its movement (usually accompanied by an output ‘clicking’ sound to feedback to you the suitable completion of your clicking task), your computer then sent a ‘packet’ of information out into the internet.

A packet is a bunch of 'ones' and zeros' that only contain meaning because of the order they are in.  This 'order' is able to be interpreted by many different pieces of software and devices to ensure that the information in the packet is able to be translated at some point.  The manner in which these ones and zeros are wrapped in multiple layers of extra data to ensure security, delivery and routing through the world-wide network (also refereed to as the internet) is quite complex - this extra data is torn off and wrapped on at various points during the data's adventure.

So, this particular packet of data, whose journey you initiated when you 'clicked', didn’t get lost in the melee of data screaming down communication pipes because inside the order of its ones and zeros was hidden some words that where unique to that packet and this site. The words were the ‘domain name’ (in this case zentechthought.com), and as the packet roared through copper and fiber communication lines, it hunted down a particular region of the internet in order to convert these words into numbers so that it could be ‘told where to go’.

The internet runs on numbers, not words, so this conversion process is very important.

This process takes place on a group of machines called ‘domain name servers’, whose sole job is to convert and route names and numbers around the internet to ensure information arrives where it should. So, your packet has arrived at the Domain Name Server, been converted into a number (called an IP address), and this number was ‘told where to go’*. ‘Where’ in this case is Google’s servers, most likely physically located in the United States.

Google servers are then queried (as in asked politely) where the 'data' for this particular 'About' page is stored - in this case the 'data' is the text that you are reading, and information about the colour of the background, the layout of the blog etc.  Once found, this data is wrapped in its own cocoon of network topology layers, headers and footers to protect it from the buffeting and ultimate fragmentation that it would otherwise endure on its return journey to your computer, and it is whisked from the server into the maelstrom - sometimes hitting the speed of light whilst traversing under sea cables and fiber-based super-hubs.

All this happens in less than a second.

But the journey is not over yet.  Your computer receives the data, and then sets to work processing it in order to display it.  This includes 'piecing' it back together after its hectic adventure across the world, and then, with the help of your internet browser  (IE, Firefox, Safari, Chrome, etc, whichever you use), it formats it exactly how I have specified when I created this page.

You computer then allows your browser to display the information on your screen.  This happens in conjunction with the 'video card drivers' - a small bit of software that is written exclusively to run the model and type of screen that you are using.  (Of course the display drivers and browser cannot exist with the Operating System!  - Windows, OSX etc).  The driver software allows the browser to light up certain parts of the screen (called pixels) that are made of liquid crystals (on LCD screens anyway) in different colours in order to replicate the information.

The screen then has a backlight which illuminates the crystals, throwing the coloured light away from the screen.  This light travels towards you, passes through the optics in your eye and is then picked up by the light sensitive tissue in your retina.  This 'image' then travels down neurological pathways to its ultimate destination of your brain for comprehension. To allow interaction and comprehension your brain builds a 3D image of your external environment, which in this case includes a computer screen with the zen | tech | thought 'About' page currently open on it.

What an adventure.  All from one click.  A very basic run through of what has just occurred would look something like this:

zen | tech | thought link – retina – brain – comprehension - 'decision to click' - finger – physical click - find internet – network layers 'amazingness' – packet sent – DNS server deciphering – various ‘hops’ throughout internet – google server farm – "please find me this data" request - data found – more amazing networking wizardry - various hops back through internet – operating system – networking de-scramble - browser - video display drivers – screen – liquid crystals and backlight – actual light – eye optics and focusing - retina – nerve pathways - brain - comprehension - smile

That last one is the only step that is not 100%.  Everything else has to happen (plus, in reality, a whole bunch more, but you get the idea...)

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I am now reminded of the impatient user who, when they click something and it does not immediately spring into view, they click again, and again, and then about 20 to 30 times rapidly hoping this frenzied clicking will reveal and solve the issue causing the lack of appearance of the 'about' page.

There are many many devices, connections and software interactions that need to work in perfect harmony for this small amount of text to be delivered to you - it is almost amazing that it doesn't work more of the time.  But more importantly, it wont work some of the time.  That is a guarantee.

I always try to remember the complexities of technology and life when I am trying to solve a tech based problem - to pay due respect to the intricate workings of these systems (even biological systems like eye/brain/comprehension) means to value the amazing interactions we have throughout the day, which allows a sort of calmness and presence to prevail.

With such presence it is always easier to solve a problem.

*To the IT purists out there, yes, I have shortened the process of DNS routing and other complex steps for brevity and for the simplification of reading this article.